Fyre Festival co-founder negotiating plea deal over fraud charges

The US government is in plea deal negotiations with Fyre Festival co-founder Billy McFarland and has asked for the criminal case against him to be delayed for a month while those negotiations are ongoing.

As previously reported, McFarland has been accused of fraud in relation to the business he established with Ja Rule which was behind the disastrous non-festival in the Bahamas and the talent booking app the event was designed to launch. The criminal proceedings followed a stack of lawsuits being filed against McFarland and his companies in the wake of the Fyre Festival’s high profile collapse.

The plea deal negotiations were confirmed in a recent short update from Assistant US Attorney Kristy J Greenberg requesting a thirty day delay in the criminal case. She wrote that “defence counsel and I have had discussions regarding a possible disposition of this case and we plan to continue our discussions”.

McFarland, who showed up with a public defender at the first court hearing in relation to the criminal charges, is now seemingly being represented by Randall W Jackson of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP in the fraud case, who backed Greenberg’s request.

The specifics of the plea deal talks are not yet known, though McFarland could face years in jail if convicted of the crimes of which he is accused.